The present invention relates to golf clubs of the type generally referred to as irons. The present invention more particularly relates to a golf club iron including a variable weighting system.
The sport of golf has developed into a highly specialized sport in which an individual golfer may be fitted with a set of clubs sized and weighted for the golfer's height, strength, and style of swing. A set of golf clubs generally will include clubs of the type known as woods and clubs of the type known as irons.
A golf club professional or pro may analyze the individual golfer's swing to determine the size and weight of the clubs that best fit that individual. The pro may then order the appropriate clubs from a manufacturing company. All too often the fitting may not be completely satisfactory and the golf pro or the individual golfer being fitted must decide whether to purchase a second differently weighted set of clubs which more closely meet the desires of the individual golfer. The variable weighted woods disclosed in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,053,563 and 4,085,934 solve this problem in the case of woods. These patents show a wood having a module disposed in the club head with access being provided to the module by means of a removable cap. The cap is a portion of the sole plate. This arrangement permits the addition and removal of weights to fit the individual golfer and also permits shifting of the weight within the head of the golf club to better fit the swing of the individual golfer.
The problems encountered in weighting of a golf club iron are distinct from those encountered in the weighting of a wood. A golf iron does not have a sole plate. A golf iron has a relatively thin, horizontal profile as compared with a wood and thus one may encounter difficulty in attempting to include a sole plate on a golf iron. In view of this, the approach for variable weighting shown in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,043,563 and 4,085,934 would not be readily applicable to an iron.
One approach for weighting a golf club iron is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,328,583 (Reach) in which a plurality of holes are provided along a lower portion of a gold club iron and a very narrow bottom plate is mounted thereover. It is to be recognized that tremendously high force would be applied to the narrow bottom plate should one top the golf ball and strike the ball only with such bottom plate. The force may very well tear away such a bottom plate. Moreover, if one were to move this bottom plate to the upper surface of the golf club head, one may at times swing beneath the ball such that only the plate would contact the ball, thereby again subjecting the plate to excessive forces. Also, dirt and grass impacting between the cover and the iron tend to warp the cover, thereby creating weighting and repair problems.